Ash (Fraxinus excelsior Linnaeus) The genus Fraxinus consists of about 65 species mainly found in temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Only one is native to Ireland, the Common Ash, Fraxinus excelsior L. It is mostly found in lowlands but will grow to altitudes of up to 450 metres. Though ash has been planted in relatively small amounts it is probably the most common naturally occurring hedgerow tree in the country. Ash attains its best growth on rich, basic lowland soils, where it can grow to 40 metres1, it usually occurs naturally in pure stands on dry limestone sites where other tree species cannot compete. In rocky places - for example, in The Burren, County Clare - hazel and ash are the dominant woodland trees. The natural distribution of ash in Western Europe is apparently defined by the species’ lack of tolerance of winter cold, late spring frosts and dry, hot summers. It has a lifespan of about 200 years. Ash produces a strong, springy timber and it is used in the manufacture of furniture, tool handles and sports goods (ash hurley). In Ireland, the latter use is the major reason for the interest in the growing of ash on a commercial basis Ash is a deciduous tree usually with straight cylindrical trunk to 1.5 m diameter. The wood is greyish-white in colour, of moderate weight and hardness, very even and close in the grain, tough, elastic, easily split or worked, and very pliable. Ash is extremely durable if felled in the winter months and properly seasoned before use; but where these precautions are neglected few woods are more perishable. Very great advantage will be found in reducing the ash logs soon after they are felled into plank or board for seasoning, since, if left for only a short time in the round state, deep shakes (cracks) open from the surface, which involve a very heavy loss when brought on later for conversion [10]. Ash wood, when beginning to decay, changes at the 1Current data suggests that ash trees rarely exceed 35 metres in height in Ireland, and none over 40 metres has been recorded. centre to a blackish colour, hence the “best quality” should be uniformly greyish- white throughout. Such wood is invaluable for purposes where elasticity and strength are required. Ash is one of Ireland’s native trees, and has a special place in Irish folklore. Massive, old ash trees seem to have been especially venerated for reasons that cannot now be explained, and suffice it to note in contrast that the oak held a lesser place of veneration in Ireland, although oak trees of similar age and stature undoubtedly existed. Ash trees often marked sites of special significance; for example, a giant ash stood beside St. Brigid’s Cathedral in Kildare[11]. The Ash Hurley Middle of handleHeelBassToeTop of handle The Ash Hurley Ash timber is strong, elastic and highly regarded because of its ‘shock resistant’ qualities. While the grain is coarse, ash takes a smooth finish, and will stain easily. In Ireland ash is the time-honoured wood used for the manufacture of the camán, spaic, hurley, the stick used in the game of hurling. Furze, Ulex europaeus, was also used, but ash is the only wood used today. In other countries, ash is used for similar ‘tools’ in which both exceptional strength perpendicular to the grain and elasticity are important: pick-axe handles, handles for shovels, rungs for ladders, tennis rackets (have been replaced with composite materials), hockey sticks, and billiard cues. A hurley comprises a handle with a sidewardly extending foot (known as the ‘bass’) which extends from an end forming a heel to a region forming a toe . The stick is made from ash and historically has been made from the lower part of the ash tree including the root section. Ash Tree Butts (a) Good. Stems are straight, free of branching or defects. Even and well- developed buttressing of the roots, 4 roots being optimal. (b) Fair. Straight stem, free from defects. Buttressing poorly developed or uneven, but with at least two good roots. (c) Poor. Swept stem or a stem with minor damage. Buttressing very poor or else very uneven. Similar to trees which might be found growing on the side of a hedgerow.  (d) Unacceptable. Forking or branching below 1.5m. This root section gives the stick the characteristic curvy grain of the boss. Ash is the only wood regarded by the players as being suitable because of its characteristics of resilience and strength. The known method of making a hurley is briefly described as follows. A suitable ash tree of any size or age is selected. The first meter and a half over the ground level must be straight. This section is removed and sawn into planks of approximately 25mm thickness. The planks are air dried for at least twelve months and the hurley shape is cut by a bandsaw from the plank. The technique is difficult requiring considerable skill and experience to make a top quality hurley. The traditional hurley stick is made from a single piece of ash wood selected only from the spreading butt of the tree. Ideally the grain structure should run longitudinally parallel with the centre line of the shaft or handle and in a continuous curve parallel to the centre line of the boss or foot to the toe of the hurley and also have the grain direction parallel to the centre line of the stick as viewed from the front or narrow edge. Grain is a term often used loosely in various ways, but properly used, in its technical sense, it refers to the direction of the axial elements of the wood in relation to the long axis of the log, or, when applied to converted timber, of an individual plank. If the axial elements are aligned parallel to the length of the piece, this is said to be straight grained, and thus any marked irregularity in the course of the axial elements affects the grain. Commonplace examples may be seen in the presence of knots, and localised diversion of nearby axial elements around them. 2.1.1 Strength and Durability of Ash When the strength of timber is the primary consideration it is usual to specify that it shall be straight grained. The importance of this specification will be seen when it is realised that there is a reduction of about 4 per cent in bending strength when the slope of the grain is 1 in 25; with a slope of 1 in 20 the reduction is 7 per cent; with 1 in 15, 11 per cent; with 1 in 10, 19 per cent; and with 1 in 5, 45 per cent [12]. The stiffness of a beam is also reduced by sloping grain, but to a less degree; the corresponding reductions in stiffness for the same variations of slope being respectively 3,4,6,11, and 33 per cent. The percentage reductions in bending and  stiffness vary somewhat with different species, but the figures quoted give an indication of the general trend. For certain uses of timber, slope of grain is all important. Timber for tool handles and sports goods is an obvious example, since a slope of grain of only 1 in 25 causes a reduction of 9 per cent in impact bending (shock-resisting abilities) [12]. The majority of sticks manufactured do not meet the ideal specifications leading to numerous breakages of boss or handle. Even allowing for a suitable grain pattern, the curved wood in the natural stick (bass region) is known in the timber trade as ‘reaction wood’ which by reason of its growth is brittle and split prone. The ideally grained natural traditional stick in playing use therefore is prone to splitting starting at the toe and continuing up through the handle due to impact. The attempts to counteract such failures and breakages by binding the boss with nailed steel banding is not really successful and potentially dangerous in use. The shrinkage and movement of the wood is not matched by the steel banding leaving it loose and ineffective. 2.1.2 Rate of Growth An important feature of a good quality hurley butt is that it be fast-growing. Quite apart from the economic benefit of attaining optimum size in as short a time as possible, slow grown trees do not provide the springy timber required by the hurley- manufacturer. Flexible hurleys absorb the shock of impact during the course of a game. It has long been an accepted fact by those who play hurling or those who make hurleys that fast growth produces springy timber. 2.2 Hurley Supply Every year about 450,000 hurleys-1999-CLOSE 1,000,000 IN 2012 are used in Ireland . They are all manufactured from the butt-section of the native Common Ash. Only the bottom 1.5m of the tree is used. The remainder is useless for this purpose. A consequence of this is that the butt is worth on average about ten times as much per cubic metre as lengths  further up the tree. Currently average quality hurley ash sells for approximately €300 per cubic metre [13]. It is the most valuable of all home-grown timber. At the prices currently prevailing it is possible to grow ash profitably. There is probably no other broadleaf tree to which this applies in Ireland. One of the reasons ash butts are so valuable is that trees suitable for hurley making are scarce. Demand exceeds supply. In the past there has been little planting of ash explicitly for this purpose. It is one of the most abundant of native tree species and occurs throughout the country, so there seemed little danger of a shortage occurring. However, most of the trees occur in scattered locations, being widespread in hedgerows, appearing in mixtures, in scrub and in few remnants of broadleaf woodland. These trees are frequently not suitable for hurley-making, harvesting costs are considerable and the logistics of locating and harvesting such trees make them unsuitable for modern methods of large-scale hurley production. Since plantation forestry commenced, ash has been planted occasionally in small patches but more usually in mixtures with conifers, particularly Norway spruce. These stands comprise the main source of hurley ash. They are usually managed to provide commercial lengths of ash as well as hurley butts and increasingly they are failing to meet the demands of hurley manufacturers as other sources of ash outside the Forest and Wildlife Service (FWS) are exhausted. In the past ash has been imported, especially from Wales [9]. Because of this the FWS has investigated the growing of ash specifically for the hurley market, to assess its commercial prospects but primarily to ensure that sufficient material is produced to allow the survival of the game of hurling and of the manufacturing industry by supplying enough ash to enable hurleys to continue to be put on the market at a reasonable price. 2.3 Variability of Wood By the variability of wood we mean the range of appearance, anatomy and chemical and physical properties to be found within the wood of trees of a given species, or in that of an individual tree. The variability of wood derives from its origin as a product of the growth of a living tree. Growth is an extremely complex process, subject in its rate, and the form it  takes, to a multiplicity of influences, both internal and external, so that all species of organisms show some degree of variation. But the growth of the wood of a tree is not a short-term process, completed like the growth of micro-organisms in a few hours or days, or of many crop plants in a single growing season, but extends over a period of scores or even hundreds of years. In consequence the effects of month-to-month or year-to-year variation in any of the factors affecting it during any part of its extended life-span, may be found within a single individual. Effects such as those of weather, soil conditions, competition with other trees and sylvicultural management may all leave their record in the wood. More casual influences may also derive from accidents such as the fall of branches, damage from the fall of nearby trees, fire, frost, the activities of pests and so on. The age of the tree itself is also a factor in the rate and pattern of its growth, and therefore exerts a continuing influence on the nature of the wood it produces. Differences between the wood of individual trees of the same species will of course arise from causes similar to those influencing the growth of any one tree, but in addition there may be other intrinsic differences between them, such as those of genetic or ecotypic origin [14]. In consequence, two individuals may react differently in their growth, even to similar environmental circumstances, so that the differences between trees, in the properties of their timber, are generally additional, and greater than, those found within one individual. It has often been said that no two pieces of wood, even if cut from the same tree, are exactly alike, and although this view of the matter is hardly susceptible of formal proof, it puts the matter in a nutshell; the range of grain, texture and figure seems to be truly infinite. This variability contributes in no small measure to the attractiveness of wood in its more decorative functions. At the same time the inherent variability of wood has other consequences of a very different kind. It presents many problems to those concerned in the conversion and utilisation of timber as a structural material, because it extends also to the mechanical properties of wood, its density and the various parameters of its strength, which relate to its constructional use in situations where it may be subject to wear and heavy loads. Even when much of the natural variability (such as that due to knots, cracks and irregularities of grain) has been excluded, as in laboratory tests of small clear specimens, there still remains a considerable residue of variation; this is evident, for instance, in the tables of strength  properties of timbers compiled by Lavers (1969). It is due to variation in the size and shape of wood cells and in the thickness and chemical composition of their walls. In short, variability is characteristic of wood, to a degree which would be unacceptable in man-made structural materials, and which adds greatly to the difficulties of the design of wood structures. In a recent marketing survey [7] it was found that the variability which exists in ash hurleys is a problem for hurlers. 2.3.1 Reaction Wood Reaction wood is the term applied to certain types of wood which are characteristically present in branches and leaning trunks. Such wood differs markedly, in its anatomical structure and chemical and physical properties, from wood of well-grown vertical trunks, which by convention, is regarded as the norm. Since its properties are inferior, from the timber-user’s point of view, to those of normal wood, its presence in timber is regarded as a defect, but this view of it should not obscure the fact that botanically it has an important natural function in the life of the tree. This reaction wood is also responsible for making the curved shape of a hurley feasible. In short, it may be said that a branch or leaning trunk has an (upper) tension side and a (lower) compression side. Softwoods and hardwoods differ fundamentally in the nature of the reaction wood they produce and in the positions in which it is formed. In softwoods (conifers) it is usually found on the compression side, and in hardwoods (dicotyledions) on the tension side; thus these two contrasting types of reaction wood are known as compression wood and tension wood respectively [14]. These terms are used, however, to describe wood showing certain characteristics features of structure; they do not mean that either compression or tension, as such, is necessarily a prime cause of the formation of these structural variations. At the same time, compression wood, on the lower side of a leaning trunk, is commonly found to be under compression, and its action may be considered, in simple terms, as tending to ‘push’ the trunk into a more vertical state. Correspondingly, tension wood, on the upper side, is commonly under tension, and its action may be visualised as tending to ‘pull’ the trunk more nearly vertical.  2.4 Toughness and Flexibility The outstanding property of ash is toughness. In other strength properties it is comparable with European beech. Selected good quality ash is one of the best timbers for sports equipment, tool handles and agricultural implements, and for all purposes where toughness, flexibility and medium weight are desirable qualities [12]. In timber-testing laboratories three separate criteria have been used to give a measure of toughness in wood. These are: shock-resisting ability, measured by the height of drop of a hammer; work done to maximum load, which is a measure of the capacity of a substance to store a considerable amount of energy before failure; and total work in bending, which provides an estimate of ability of a substance to sustain a considerable load after the maximum load has been reached. However, authorities are not agreed as to what test data are the best indication of toughness [28]. It was decided to carry out impact tests on samples of ash wood at the Polymer Development Centre in Athlone. Thornton [28] describes in detail the experimental procedures used in these tests. In this thesis, two separate tests were used to determine the energy at failure of Ash specimens. Three thicknesses were chosen (5mm, 10mm and 20mm) for specimens of dimensions 200mm x 60mm and 200mm x 200mm. The larger specimens were used in a V-block test. The specimen is placed on the V-block and a weighted tup is allowed impact the centre of the specimen. The height and weight of the drop-weight can be varied to cause failure of the ash specimen. As shown in Figure 2.3 the grain direction can be placed parallel or perpendicular to the sides of the v-block. Obviously, the energy at failure will be higher for the case where the grain is perpendicular to the sides of the v-block. In another test an ash specimen (200mm x 60mm) is placed on a supporting ring (Figure 2.3) and a drop-weight penetrates the specimen by means of a 20mm diameter tup. The energy at failure is noted for the different specimens (5mm, 10mm and 20mm). Different grain patterns and grain spacing are witnessed for each individual sample. However, by testing composite specimens under the same conditions it will be possible to see a qualitative difference in the materials. It is envisaged that Kevlar braid reinforced thermosets will be tested under similar conditions and this information will be used in the design of a composite hurley. Kevlar is used in applications where high impact properties are required which is the case for the hurley. The ‘bass’ region is subjected to repeated sliotar as well as hurley impact.  Flexibility is an important requirement in all hurleys.